How Should Sex Education Be Taught In School?

The goal of sex education is to empower students with the information and skills to become a sexually healthy adult. The exact details of how this looks and what this means will vary depending on age level and grade as well as where you’re teaching.

The programs are not one size fits all. They vary in their approach, target population, setting, length, and desired outcome. Because of this, you should choose a program that is effective for the specific outcomes you want to achieve.

Monitoring program fidelity and quality are important to ensuring you reach the desired outcomes of the curriculum.

For more advice around choosing and adapting a curriculum, click here.

If for some reason ‒ time, funding, location, etc ‒ you cannot implement an existing program, you can adapt or develop your own. A number of organizations have identified the characteristics of an effective sexuality curriculum. Essentially these are the pieces that programs effective at reducing STIs and teen pregnancy have in common. Characteristics of such curricula include:

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